My son is repowering and adding subs. He had a Kenwood 7201 and 2 Kenwood 12"subs in a sealed box. He is not doing competitions, he just wants it loud, (noticable). I'm telling him a 2 chanel amp putting out 400-500 watts RMS is more than enough to be heard without his ears bleeding. He wants 800 - 1000 watts. Let's hear from some of you that actually know what your talking about and set us both straight. How much is enough?
1000 watts is quite a bit of power...but some people on this forum are using 2600 watts or more...so 1000 is actually close to average i guess on what people use on a system these days...
ya, ur his dad, smack him upsede the head and say "500 watts if fine, are you gonna disrespect me again?" (another smack to the head) "huh, boy.. u listening to me?!" (one more smack) then walk away. I bet he'll be fine with 400-500W rms after that.
I have about 1500RMS watts in my subs and 200RMS watts in my components and I cant hear cops/firetrucks basically anything. I was bumping it around 8pm EST and a cop tried pulling me over and I didnt notice until he spot lighted my side mirror and blinded the sh!t out of me. he will be fine with the wattage you said, but if he wants that let him do it or he wont ever be satisfied and will eventually do it anyway wasting lots of time and money lol
if you look at it 500 watts rms is 1000watts wich im sure you know i think 1600 max (most popular number) is good to me oh and tell him to keep it that way cause he'll lose his hearing trust me im 17 and im already losing it though i do have 2400 rms in my car ha
a lot depends on the car itself, and how good the amps and speakers are that he chooses. I used a festiva for competitions at one time and ran 160 watts x 2 for a pair of 12" Cerwin Vega subs along with a 125 watt x 2 amp for four 5" mids, four 1" soft dome, and four hard dome tweeters. That system with a total of ~820 watts all combined, could blow ya out of the car, while keeping a perfect C weighted sound curve.. As it stands now, I'm using a '66 charger fastback with two RE 12" subs, and a 3-way compoennt set in front, and total combined power is around 2,800 watts RMS from three Orion class AB amps. While I probably don't need that much power entirely, the headroom is always good to have for transient demands, as it's set up for sound quality and I don't want any distortion from clipping during peak demands. Granted the car can get plenty loud, too.
design has a lot to do with how much power you need, but sure, you can do a lot without needing tousands of watts of power. When I had the Festiva back in say, 1991, pro circuit competitions had power class ratings, and anything 1000 watts of more was "unlimited class" and was mainly held by the guys with full size vans, and 15 amplifiers in the back. most ""mortals" had at most, 3 to 5 amplifiers, and a total power of about 300-800 watts, if even that.
majority was 1 or 2 amp systems under 500 watts and still hitting over 130dB
"I have 500W RMS and it is plenty loud. I wouldn't want it any louder... as is right now it already hurts my ears while riding in it."
That's the same way it is with my 15" CVR setup right now. The key is not to listen to it too loud for long periods of time. Like Glasswolf said, design has a lot to do with the amount of power you'll need. The XXX subs are already pretty inefficient by themselves. I'm not positive, but AP enclosures may make the setup less efficient than it already is, making headroom a plus. With my enclosure, 500w RMS is all you need to get it as loud as you'd want it for a daily setup, and it's far from being an SPL oriented box.
an AP enclosure is -3dB compared to sealed because the sub is playing through a resistive membrane, but what ya lose in efficiency you gain in driver control. great SQ box, and the XXX subs like power anyway, with their 32mm xmax, and huge magnet structure, to control that excursion, using the XBL^2 motor design, they're very linear, very well controlled subs. good for SQ, but still able to get plenty loud with sufficient power.
There are pros and cons to any product. It's really a matter of matching the desire you have, or your goals to your wallet and the products that fit both bills.